The Gamer
by Sephira Netzach
Summary: Tidus' club manager friend Rin has a new game he wants Tidus to try out...a new game that transports the player to a different world. PG13 for mild sexual references and some violence.
1. Login

A/N: 'Kay. I had an odd idea for this and I like it. Tell me if you like it or not. BTW, this is way AU, so don't flame me for that. Disclaimer's on my profile.  
  
---***---***--- The Gamer Chapter I: Login ---***---***---  
  
Tidus Deschampes swaggered into the nightclub, pushing hair bleached by sun and chlorine out of his eyes, the color of which rivaled the water he loved. The DJs were playing some techno thing; the bass boost alone must have caused the area around the club to register a 5-point earthquake on the Richter scale. Immediately he was crowded by girls too young to be there and women too old for his taste. Very few women who threw themselves at him were near his age. They were all off partying elsewhere, at the extremely expensive clubs, waiting for his arrival.  
  
He wouldn't come. He never did. Besides being very frugal, he didn't like the crowds. And in any case, he knew the manager here. He got in free.  
  
Tidus took a seat at the bar, ordering his usual drink from the bartender. Taking a sip, he nearly choked when he was slapped on the back.  
  
"Tidus! Never thought I'd see you here. Thought you'd be uptown, hanging out with that new singer chick, or your team or some whore or somethin'."  
  
"Rin, you know I don't go uptown."  
  
"And you bring me good business on your depressing days! But come back here, my friend, have something to show you..."  
  
Tidus took another swig from his drink and followed Rin through a swinging door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY, and to a back room. Inside there was a large column, around which were several pods. The opaque lids on the pods were open; none of the five were occupied. A few of the select of this club were schmoozing around, their scantily-clad girlfriends eyeing Tidus with obvious intentions. Tidus was known to be a ladies' man – what respectable athlete wouldn't be? He bedded his share of women, but always made sure they were both cold sober. If he were to be charged with rape, he'd be thrown out of the World Blitzball League, and lose his chance at a MVP at 17. He was the only blitzball player to be chosen while still in high school. He suspected it had something to do with his father, Jecht.  
  
Tidus didn't hate his father, not after these ten years. The hatred had simmered down to a more....slow burn. It flared up on occasion, but Tidus generally kept his head and didn't let his resentment get the better of him.  
  
Rin laid his hand on one of the pods. Inside was a complex array of nodes, and a comfortable looking seat. Rin gestured to it. "Care to go for a ride?"  
  
Tidus looked at the pod warily. It was cramped-looking, for his 5'11'' frame, and he didn't want to get claustrophobic. "It safe, Rin? I won't end up with broken bones, this time?"  
  
"No, no. Tested it on myself; it's completely safe."  
  
"How many people did you have to kill or con to get the parts?"  
  
"I'm completely legit this time, Ti. Don' worry about it."  
  
Tidus sat down on the seat. Rin began strapping on the equipment; nodes on his temples and chest, strange wraps that went all the way around his upper arms and legs and torso. His lower legs and arms were slid into bootlike and glovelike compartments, and secured. Rin looked at him after he finished, a hand on the lid of the pod. "You all right, buddy?"  
  
Tidus wriggled a bit. "Seems fine."  
  
Rin put a necklace with the Zanarkand Abes symbol around his neck. "That'll keep us in touch. Call me if you get into a bind, or encounter a bug. I'll pull you out."  
  
He closed the lid, and Tidus was plunged into darkness. Then he heard Rin's voice.  
  
/It good?/  
  
/I'm fine,/ Tidus replied. A hood was lowered over his head; he felt the coolness of metal, pressing against his face. /What's this?/  
  
/How you get the trip of your lifetime,/ Rin said. And then Tidus was engulfed in a swirl of color. And he emerged in what looked like the front of his house.  
  
/Rin./  
  
/I tell you, you'll love it. Just relax./  
  
/How do I move?/  
  
/Think, Tidus. Think you move, think you smile, think you bang whatever girl you want to. Just do whatever, but think it first./  
  
Tidus thought about running forward, and he did. Right into a crowd. Moving about, he signed autographs and talked – just like he normally would. And then he played blitzball. How Rin got it to be so realistic, Tidus wondered as he flew up out of the water to score, I will never know.  
  
And then he saw it.  
  
A big ball of water, heading towards the stadium, sucking up everything in its path. Tidus twisted in midair and grabbed one of the rings that rotated constantly around the pool. Inside the rings, molten metal circulated and generated an electric field that held the pool in its spherical shape. Now it slowed, and the sphere pool fell apart. Tidus fell with it, screaming as he plunged downward.  
  
He hit the waters of the lake below the stadium and scrambled up to the ground floor, staggering through the rubble and the crowds and getting out to the entrance. He saw a familiar figure leaning on a chunk of rock.  
  
"Auron?!" he yelled, and ran over. Why had Rin programmed his stepfather into this?  
  
/Rin, what in hell?!/  
  
No answer. Desperate, Tidus tried again. Again, no answer. He finally gave up. "Rin," he growled before stopping at the man in red, "I'm going to kill you."  
  
Auron was completely different. He wasn't the open man he had been; now he was mysterious, almost annoying in his new role as the enigma. Tidus found himself biting back a sharp retort when Auron said, "We called it 'Sin.'" And pointed towards the ball of water.  
  
Running forward, feeling the strain in calves and thighs (for he was more in the game than he was out, and was only vaguely aware of his body in the pod), Tidus saw oval-shaped discs flying towards them. The discs opened up on impact to reveal spiny creatures. Tidus stopped, batted at them ineffectually.  
  
"Here!" Auron said. He handed Tidus a sword. Tidus took it. "Hope you know how to use it," Auron said.  
  
Of course he did. Auron had trained Tidus with the sword since he'd married Tidus' mother, Alhana, ten years ago. Tidus was a natural with it. But even so, not really having a tangible sword in his hand threw him a little, until he felt the pressure in his palm and could balance it. A little menu popped up, surprising him. On the right-hand side, it showed the monsters, labeled as "Monster A" "Monster B" and "Monster C" and then Auron's picture and Tidus' picture. Right now, Auron's name was highlighted; next to his name was a series of numbers, and above them was Tidus' name and more numbers. Tidus read them like this:  
  
TIDUS 560/560 43 AURON 1030/1030 79  
  
And remembered he was in a game.  
  
---***---  
  
How'dya like it? Tell me! At least three reviews before I post the next chapter. 


	2. Tutorial

A/N : Thank you to the people who reviewed.  
  
---***--- The Gamer ---***--- Chapter II: Tutorial ---***---  
  
A small window popped up and Tidus scanned it. It said something about attacking, and selecting things. Tidus closed the window with a thought and considered the menus before him. There was the little thing on the right, with the pictures and labels, and he figured that showed who went when. Across the top of his vision, there was a little bar that said "Help Screen." On the bottom left, there was a small menu. It said  
  
ATTACK  
  
SKILL  
  
SPECIAL  
  
ITEM  
  
Tidus found he could move the little arrow that pointed to 'Attack' around with his mind, and did so gleefully - until he realized he was rooted to the spot until he made a decision. Hastily he 'pressed' the 'Attack' option. Auron ran forward and hit one of the spiny things; it disintigrated into lots of little ghost-looking things. Tidus shivered, but when the menu popped up again when his name was highlighted, Tidus obediently 'pressed' the 'Attack' option, sprang forward, and attacked. It felt weird, not having control over his body. But after a turn of battle or two, he got used to it.  
  
He kept trying to raise Rin, all through the next few battles. They'd just encountered this odd little tree-like thing, and he was about to try again when a devastating hit of sudden increased gravity shook him down. When the menu popped up again, he noticed that the numbers that he guessed represented the amount of hits he could get and still live in the game had gone down – a lot.  
  
TIDUS 320/540 42  
  
AURON 860/1030 76  
  
Tidus grunted as another hit from the thing decreased his health more. The number of health points remaining was now in yellow next to his name.  
  
TIDUS 132/540 42  
  
AURON 643/1030 76  
  
The menu reappeared after Auron had gone up and hit the thing. Tidus searched through his menu for a way to heal himself. "Items" looked promising. Tidus 'pushed' the selection and another menu popped up out of the other one.  
  
POTION 10 PHOENIX DOWN 10  
  
In the help screen above, it showed potions to "Heal a character for 200 HP." Good, this was what he wanted. Tidus selected "Potion" and then himself when prompted to choose a target. The menus disappeared. He pulled out a small glowing ball of light and tossed it up over his head. Greenish ripples drifted across his vision; in a moment, he felt somewhat better. His health now read:  
  
TIDUS 332/560  
  
Tidus smiled to himself. He was getting the hang of this. When the menu popped up again (couldn't Rin have found a better way of propelling this thing other than menus? Tidus thought) Tidus saw little gauges under his name and Auron's. Auron's was full and orange; his was yellow, and only partially full.  
  
Another informative message appeared. Apparantly, this was Auron's "Overdrive" and he could do more damage and use special attacks. Well, a special attack – it was a one-time-only deal, until the gauge filled again. Rather silly of Rin, Tidus thought. He'd known the guy since they both were in preschool; Rin had been designing games since he was seven. Real games that worked, too. Fighting games, driving games, role-playing games, adventure, whatever he wanted, he made. Complete with music and up-to-date graphics. No unimaginative 2D for Rin.  
  
Tidus shoved thoughts of his friend out of his mind and concentrated on killing the thing. He had Auron use his Overdrive and was presented with a keypad, a series of shapes and arrows, and a timer that was rapidly clicking down. Hurriedly, Tidus tapped out the correct sequence and the timer shut off. Auron performed his Overdrive spectacularly; it nearly killed the thing. Tidus selected 'Attack' when his turn came again, and after his sword sliced neatly through the thing and back out again it erupted into a shower of the little ghosty-things and turned to an unremarkable hunk of rocklike stuff. Tidus had a moment to look out from the overpass they were on and over the city.  
  
Zanarkand was in ruins; huge fires razed whole blocks of buildings, the waterbridges that had so revolutionized highway travel were disintegrating. Tidus shoved down tears; Zanarkand had been his home for longer than he could remember, and probably for all his life. He loved it, and to see it in such a state was disturbing.  
  
"Tidus!" Auron yelled from further up the overpass. The man was a nuclear plant of energy; Tidus was panting from battle and from running. And he wasn't even real here. /I'm out of shape,/ he thought. /Gotta get back in shape for the Cup next month./ Up ahead there was a curious glowing blue sphere. Tidus ran over to it, holding his side, and looked at it. It was glowing blue mist encased in a glass sphere. Maglev, or something like it, caused it to hover above a base, and also held in a small rotating ring. Reaching around the ring, Tidus tapped the glass experimentally. Maybe it was a sphere recorded by Rin – an easter egg he slipped into the programming. Rin had those in all of his games. Instead, another (accursed) menu popped up.  
  
SAVE  
  
CANCEL  
  
Tidus selected SAVE and was brought to a screen that showed slots that were numbered in ascending order. The top one was taken by a line of faces (one of which was his, disturbingly) and had the name "RIN" on it. That was Rin's file, and Tidus moved the arrow to the one below it. From the looks of it, Rin had put well over 100 hours into this little game, and Tidus wasn't about to break his friendship with the man by saving over his precious game. The save completed on the second file.  
  
/Tidus! Man, are you all right?/  
  
/Rin? What the hell did you do?/  
  
/Sorry./ Rin's mental voice sounded rueful. /Duty calls.../  
  
/You were screwing someone, weren't you, Rin?/  
  
/No! No!...well, yes. Not like you ever do./  
  
/Rin. Get. Me. Out. Now./  
  
The shock of returning to normal life and a place where Zanarkand was not being engulfed in flames nearly overwhelmed Tidus when the pod was opened and all the leads and nodes removed. The face mask popped off, and Tidus gasped. The glovelike things enclosing his arms and legs retracted, and he stood shakily.  
  
"That...was..." he choked out. Rin slapped him on the back, and as his arms flopped limply around he caught a glimpse of the chrono on his wrist. "Great Holy, Savior of Spira! It's almost three...!"  
  
"You have to go so you can sleep and get to classes on time."  
  
"Yes, Rin. See ya later."  
  
"Hey, come back anytime, awright? The pods'll be here, ready for your login." Tidus left, sliding into his floatcar and speeding off towards the waterbridge that would take him to home.  
  
The waterbridges were just that; bridges made out of water. Cars now were made with hoverpaks that converted to propellers. They sucked the hydrogen out of the water and turned it into power. The waterbridges were the brainchild of Dr. Virithra Mataias, after her many decades of research on the subject. Waterbridges made travel that much easier; one could conceivably drop out of it at any point, provided your car was fast on converting. Generally, a smartcar just kept the hoverpaks closed with a watertight door which was opened at the press of a button, just as they were closed. But on some of the older models it was necessary to go all the way on the waterbridge before going through the maze of tunnels that allowed your car time to adjust to using hovers again.  
  
Tidus had made the route so many times already it was etched into his subconscious, but he still paid close attention to his driving. Tidus had been happy when they'd dropped the legal driving age to 15, but he was still careful. Auron was a nice guy, but Tidus wanted to stay on his good side.  
  
Yawning, Tidus parked the car in front of his house and quietly opened the front door. His mother was curled on the couch, asleep in front of the vidscreen. Tidus shut the vid off and tenderly tucked a blanket around her. Tidus loved his mother greatly; it was mostly because of her pain that he was mad at his father for just disappearing.  
  
For disappearing, for being a womanizer, a boozer, and a complete failure as a father.  
  
Determined to be happy, Tidus shoved the thoughts away into the dark black hole in the very deepest metaphorical corner of his mind and crept up to his room. Laying down in bed and pulling the covers up took longer than it did for him to fall asleep. 


	3. Grace Period

shinA/N: Third chapter! Whee!  
  
---***--- The Gamer ---***--- Chapter III: Grace Period ---***---  
  
Tidus managed to get up on time (alarm clocks helped) and shuffle down to breakfast. He slurped up something resembling oatmeal and a few slices of bacon, snatched up an apple and his floatcar keys and backpack, and drove off to school.  
  
Zanarkand was divided into sectors, four north, four south, three east, and five west; the city officials had taken a leaf from their ancestors' book and numbered them. Zanarkand was a great sprawling behemoth, far outstripping its primary rival Bevelle by far. Tidus' school, Zanar West- Three High School, catered especially to athletes. Once Tidus had been seeded for the Abes, he had transferred to ZWTHS. It wasn't that much longer a commute, and it wasn't far from the stadium.  
  
While his car followed the preprogrammed route to ZWTHS, Tidus made sure he'd done his Civics homework; Mr. Petro was a stickler for homework. Normally Tidus would have skived off and copied it from someone, or forgotten about it altogether, but his grades had fallen from the B average they normally were. Auron had immediately gotten on his back, and had worked out something with the coach so that if he fell to a C average or worse, he would be suspended from all blitz until he raised them. Since blitz was his life, and probably his source of income for his entire working life, Tidus knew when he'd been beat.  
  
Tidus fingered the Abes symbol Rin had given him. He liked that game, however weird it was, and decided to play it as often as possible. Flipping out his cell phone, Tidus dialed Rin's house, knowing he'd be up tinkering on something.  
  
Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.  
  
"Hey, this is Rin, I'm not here but you can be. Leave a message." Beep.  
  
Tidus cursed under his breath but said, "Rin, this is Tidus. I'll stop by after school to play a little more of that game. Have it ready for me, okay? See-ya." He thumbed the 'End' button and dropped the phone back into his backpack.  
  
Getting into the parking lot at school could be tricky, if you came late. Tidus was running ahead of schedule, and avoided the worst of the student traffic, but was still stuck five minutes waiting to get to his parking space. The clamps came down to grasp the car. Tidus turned off the engine and stepped out, slinging his backpack over one shoulder and locking the car before moving off towards his first class – Civics.  
  
---***---  
  
"Yo, Tidus, wake up!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Brendan poked at Tidus, who'd been happily stretched out on the artificially-grown turf on the school's roof. With space such a commodity in Zanarkand, fields and parks were on rooftops. The grass was grown in massive hydroponics labs, in the east-two, where most of the scientific labs were located. One of Tidus' aunts worked there.  
  
The field/park on top of the West-Three High School was a luxurious one. It had trees.  
  
Tidus sat up. "Brendan, I told you not to wake me!"  
  
"Figured you'd be hungry, man. Seems like you're part stomach half the time."  
  
Brendan had been Tidus' best school friend since the third grade, and he'd known Tidus long enough to know that Tidus was, in fact, completely stomach all the time. Tidus snatched one of the rehydrated burgers off Brendan's tray and took a huge bite. "As usual," he said cheerfully while taking another bite. "Tastes something like plasflim. But if you close your eyes it almost feels like you're really eating chicken."  
  
Brendan rolled his eyes and started in on his own burger. "Man, I don't know how we eat this stuff."  
  
"I don't either."  
  
---***---  
  
Tidus languished over his homework for the day in Advisory, and finally left school at about four. Tidus always did his homework at school; that way he could spend hours at blitzball practice and not have to worry about it. But there was no blitzball practice today; Coach Fawzi had given them the day off after their spectacular win the other night. Eight to one, leading from the start. Blitz was Tidus' life, but even he liked his vacations occasionally. But today he was on his way to Rin's, to play some more of that game.  
  
He parked his hovercar across the street from the now-calm nightclub. Shouldering his way in past the security guards through a door that said "Deliveries," Tidus got himself into the game room. One of the other pods was closed; someone was in it. Tidus climbed into one of the other pods and attached all the leads, quelled his claustrophobia when the things slid up over his arms and legs, and relaxed when the faceplate slid down over his face and the pod lid closed with a hiss-click. A screen popped up:  
  
SPIRA: SPIRAL OF DEATH  
  
NEW GAME  
  
LOAD FILE  
  
Tidus chose LOAD FILE, moved the pointer to his (he noticed there was now another save file, with different characters, and that Rin's counter was ticking up) and was immediately whisked off to the highbridge in Zanarkand. He was in his character almost immediately, running back after Auron. Leaping ledges and gaps was no problem in this body. But at the last one...  
  
The thing was sucking the city up into its belly. Auron looked up at it and said, "You are sure?"  
  
"Auron!" Tidus yelled. "Auron!"  
  
The man in red pulled him up and held him out for the suction of the thing to take. "This is your story," he said, and then the whole world dissolved into nothingness.  
  
---***---  
  
He awoke swimming in – nothing.  
  
He was suspended in the air, alone. All alone, utterly alone, in front of a large burning Zanarkand Abes symbol, swimming like he was in water but wasn't.  
  
/Where is everyone? Rin? Auron?/  
  
/...Dad?/  
  
Tidus swam around aimlessly. Then a figure, fuzzy, swam into view. Curious, Tidus went towards the figure and saw it resolve into himself as a young boy. It felt odd, watching himself talk. Then he was whisked off again, this time to a bunch of ruins in a long inlet of the sea. It was cold, and he was alone again. At least when he'd been talking with himself he was WITH someone. Shivering, Tidus slid into the water. It enveloped him like a lover, warmed and comforted him and soothed his frazzled nerves.  
  
/Geez, Rin, this is some game!/  
  
Tidus didn't expect a response, and didn't get one. Rin was in his game, probably screwing around with some chick. Tidus swam towards what looked like a temple; ruined and broken, its minarets reached up to the sullen skies. He reached a small set of stairs, and ran up them. There was another of the spheres, and he saved there. It was already second nature. Tap the sphere, select 'SAVE' and wait a moment. He made note of the third save file – the characters were very different. There was an older-looking man, and another man that could be that man's son. Tidus pushed that out of his mind while he ran around to keep warm and try to find a way to the temple's entrance. He came across a chest and pushed it open.  
  
RECEIVED 200 GIL  
  
Tidus wondered how he could see how much gil he had – if it was money in Zanarkand, it would surely be money here too. Rin was creative, but not THAT creative. And as the thought crossed his mind, the little keypad with the buttons that he'd used in the battle before popped up. Tidus pressed the various buttons and found the triangular one brought up a menu that had his picture on the left, his HP and MP, and some other stuff he wasn't sure about. At the bottom it said  
  
GIL: 1900  
  
/Hm. Multiply that by five and add a couple zeroes and you have my paycheck. Heh, I love being an athlete./  
  
That accomplished, Tidus made the menu vanish by calling up the keypad again and pressing the circle button. Moving forward once more, thinking about what he was supposed to do here (and where that big whale-fish thing went) he didn't notice the bridge he was on shaking until the stones fell out from under him and he fell into the circular pool. And there were more monsters.  
  
Fish-type things; ugly, their mouths full of teeth and their spines sharp. Tidus kept a distance and pulled out his sword, grim and ready to go. The battle menus popped up again, and Tidus quickly selected the options he wanted and attacked. Two of the fish-things flew up into those little sparklike things that moaned. The third was about to attack; he had 203 HP and he knew it would kill him –  
  
And a large thing came and ate it.  
  
/Always a bigger fish./  
  
---***---***---  
  
A/N: Sorry for the long wait guys, but I had a lot to do...last week was the talent show I performed in. I wanted to get this chapter to you earlier, but like I said...  
  
Thank you to the people who reviewed! It means a lot to me. I now have a definite way this fic is going, so stay tuned! 


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